BEIJING: China is likely to import more grains after its output dipped by about 5.2 million tonnes this year compared with last year as the planting area shrank and the per unit yield edged down, according to official data. National grain output stood at about 616 million tonnes in 2016, down by about 5.2 million tonnes, about 0.8 per cent, compared with last year, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. Grain planting area has shrunk by 3.15 lakh hectares, while the per unit yield dropped by 30.7 kilograms per hectare, it said. Facing unbalanced supply and demand among grain varieties, many areas reduced corn planting in favour of soy and used the grain for feedstuff and oil, to Huang Bingxin, a senior statistician with NBS said.
The reduction in the planting area impacted high-yield grain and severe national extreme weather such as drought and heavy rain also dented grain productivity, Huang was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency on Thursday. As it resorted to massive urbanisation, converting the largely agrarian country into urban settlements, China’s agricultural output slowed over the years with the Communist nation resorting to massive grain imports in recent years not commensurate with the growth of population which is over 1.3 billion.
Grain production last year was over 621 million tonnes, higher than 2014’s 607 million tonnes. Excluding imports the supply was 25 million tonnes less than what was needed, China’s Agricultural MinisterHan Changfu said.
“More people will live in cities. Compared with rural residents, urban dwellers eat less rice, but consume more meat, eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables. Based on our calculation, a person living in cities generally consumes far more agricultural products than a person living in villages,” he was quoted as saying by Hong Kong media in March this year. Han said that the large amount of grain imports were due to the shortage of specific products and lower prices in international market. Among the 120 million tonnes of grain imported, more than 80 million tonnes were beans that came mainly from the US and Brazil. The rest were mostly cereals. During the 13th five-year plan, which started this year the country will not pursue a continuous growth of grain output, but a bigger capacity, the minister said.
